To:A. V. LUNACHARSKY

Published:First published inPravdaNo. 21, January 21, 1940.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1976],

      Moscow,Volume 35,

      page434.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

January18,1920

ComradeLunacharsky,

RecentlyI had occasion—to my regret and shame,
for the first time—to look through the famous Dahl
dictionary.[1]

It’sa magnificent thing, hut then it’s a dictionary ofregionalterms, and out of date. Is it not time to produce
a dictionary of therealRussian language, a dictionary,
say, of words usednowadaysand by theclassics, from
Pushkin to Gorky?

Whatif 30 scholars were set to work at this, and provided
with Red Army rations?

Whatwould be your attitude to this idea?

Adictionary of the classical Russian language?

Withoutmaking a noise about it, have a talk with people
who know the subject, if it’s not too much trouble, and
let me know your opinion.

Yours,Lenin

[1]Referenceis toTolkovy slovar zhivogo velikorusskogo yazyka(
Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great-Russian Language) by
V. I. Dahl, published in four volumes, 1863–66.

Inaccordance with Lenin’s instructions, the People’s
Commissariat of Education began work on compiling a new dictionary,
but the project was not realised at that time. A newTolkovy slovar
russkogo yazyka(Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian
Language) came out in 1935–40 in four volumes under the editorship of
D. N. Ushakov.